Grayscale Engraving with Power Scaling
How Grayscale Engraving Works
Pixel brightness maps directly to laser power. White pixels fire at minimum power or skip. Black pixels fire at maximum. The result is variable depth engraving that reproduces photographic tonal range in wood, leather, or anodized aluminum.
Image Preparation
- Convert to grayscale
- Boost contrast 20–30%
- Apply light sharpening (Unsharp Mask 50%, radius 1px)
- Resize to match your DPI setting before importing
LightBurn Settings
Set your layer to Fill mode. Enable Power Scaling. Set Min Power to 5–10% and Max Power to your tested maximum. Use 254 DPI for most work — higher DPI increases burn time without visible improvement on natural materials.
Dithering vs Power Scaling
Dithering simulates tones using dot patterns at constant power. Power scaling fires at variable power per pixel. For photographic work on wood and leather, power scaling produces smoother gradients. Dithering works better on very dark materials or anodized metal.
Material Response
Light wood (maple, birch): Highest tonal range. Use a stiff brush to remove char after engraving to reveal the full tonal range.
Dark wood (walnut, cherry): Lower contrast. Boost contrast further in image prep.
Leather: Excellent response. Start at 50% max power — leather scorches easily at high power.